‘Remarkable Improvement’ in Foreclosures

The foreclosure crisis is becoming a fading memory for the housing market. Foreclosure inventory nationwide plunged 21.8 percent in November 2015 year over year, while completed foreclosures dropped by 18.8 percent during that period, according to CoreLogic’s November 2015 National Foreclosure Report, released this week. Foreclosure inventory represents the number of homes at some stage of the foreclosure process. Completed foreclosures are the total homes actually lost to foreclosure.

“After peaking at 3.6 percent in January 2011, the foreclosure rate currently stands at 1.2 percent — a remarkable improvement,” says Frank Nothaft, chief economist for CoreLogic. “While there are still pockets of areas with high foreclosure activity, 30 states have foreclosure rates below the national average, which is evidence of the solid improvement.”

Indeed, tight post-crash underwriting standards coupled with much improved economic and housing market fundamentals have combined to push new mortgage delinquencies to 15-year-lows, adds Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “Although judicial states will likely continue to lag, given current trends, it is reasonable to expect a continued and significant drop in the rate of serious delinquencies and foreclosure starts in 2016,” Nallathambi says.

The five areas with the lowest number of completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending in November 2015 were the District of Columbia (78), North Dakota (225), Wyoming (543), West Virginia (565), and Hawaii (686).

On the other hand, five states alone accounted for nearly half of all completed foreclosures nationally: Florida (83,000 completed foreclosures for the 12 months ending November 2015), Michigan (51,000), Texas (29,000), California (24,000), and Georgia (24,000).